[PATCH] cgroup: avoid flushing global workqueue in cgroup1_pidlist_destroy_all

From: Junnan Zhang

Date: Fri Aug 14 2026 - 04:43:56 EST


From: Junnan Zhang <zhangjn11@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

cgroup1_pidlist_destroy_all() flushes the global
cgroup_pidlist_destroy_wq while destroying a cgroup. Because all cgroup
v1 pidlist destruction work items are queued on the same shared workqueue,
a single slow or stuck work item (e.g. waiting for pidlist_mutex held by a
user-space reader) blocks every concurrent cgroup destruction path.

This can lead to kworker tasks stuck in flush_workqueue() for over
hung_task_timeout seconds, as observed on busy systems running Docker or
Kubernetes workloads.

INFO: task kworker/0:1:1438499 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
"echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
kworker/0:1 D 0 1438499 2 0x80000080
Workqueue: cgroup_destroy css_free_rwork_fn
? __schedule+0x296/0x900
schedule+0x28/0x80
schedule_timeout+0x1ee/0x3a0
? kvm_sched_clock_read+0xd/0x20
wait_for_completion+0x12c/0x190
? wake_up_q+0x70/0x70
flush_workqueue+0x132/0x430
? cgroup1_pidlist_destroy_all+0x7c/0xa0
cgroup1_pidlist_destroy_all+0x7c/0xa0
css_free_rwork_fn+0xb5/0x390
process_one_work+0x195/0x3e0
worker_thread+0x30/0x390
? process_one_work+0x3e0/0x3e0
kthread+0x113/0x130
? kthread_create_worker_on_cpu+0x70/0x70
ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x40

Fix it by moving the cgroup's pidlists to a local orphan list under
pidlist_mutex, clearing their ->owner pointer, and then cancelling each
pidlist's delayed work outside the lock. The destroy work function now
checks ->owner and skips freeing orphaned pidlists, so
cgroup1_pidlist_destroy_all() can free them safely without flushing the
whole shared workqueue.

Signed-off-by: Junnan Zhang <zhangjn11@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Shouxin Sun <sunshx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/cgroup/cgroup-v1.c | 53 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------
1 file changed, 38 insertions(+), 15 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/cgroup/cgroup-v1.c b/kernel/cgroup/cgroup-v1.c
index a4337c9b5287..874fe4dc6ffd 100644
--- a/kernel/cgroup/cgroup-v1.c
+++ b/kernel/cgroup/cgroup-v1.c
@@ -206,13 +206,31 @@ struct cgroup_pidlist {
void cgroup1_pidlist_destroy_all(struct cgroup *cgrp)
{
struct cgroup_pidlist *l, *tmp_l;
+ LIST_HEAD(orphan);
+
+ /*
+ * Move pidlists to a local orphan list and mark them as owner-less.
+ * The destroy work function will see ->owner == NULL and skip freeing.
+ * We then cancel and free them outside pidlist_mutex to avoid
+ * flush_workqueue() blocking on the shared workqueue.
+ */

mutex_lock(&cgrp->pidlist_mutex);
- list_for_each_entry_safe(l, tmp_l, &cgrp->pidlists, links)
- mod_delayed_work(cgroup_pidlist_destroy_wq, &l->destroy_dwork, 0);
+ list_for_each_entry_safe(l, tmp_l, &cgrp->pidlists, links) {
+ list_del(&l->links);
+ l->owner = NULL;
+ list_add(&l->links, &orphan);
+ }
mutex_unlock(&cgrp->pidlist_mutex);

- flush_workqueue(cgroup_pidlist_destroy_wq);
+ list_for_each_entry_safe(l, tmp_l, &orphan, links) {
+ list_del(&l->links);
+ cancel_delayed_work_sync(&l->destroy_dwork);
+ kvfree(l->list);
+ put_pid_ns(l->key.ns);
+ kfree(l);
+ }
+
BUG_ON(!list_empty(&cgrp->pidlists));
}

@@ -222,21 +240,26 @@ static void cgroup_pidlist_destroy_work_fn(struct work_struct *work)
struct cgroup_pidlist *l = container_of(dwork, struct cgroup_pidlist,
destroy_dwork);
struct cgroup_pidlist *tofree = NULL;
+ struct cgroup *owner;

- mutex_lock(&l->owner->pidlist_mutex);
+ owner = l->owner;
+ if (owner) {
+ mutex_lock(&owner->pidlist_mutex);

- /*
- * Destroy iff we didn't get queued again. The state won't change
- * as destroy_dwork can only be queued while locked.
- */
- if (!delayed_work_pending(dwork)) {
- list_del(&l->links);
- kvfree(l->list);
- put_pid_ns(l->key.ns);
- tofree = l;
- }
+ /*
+ * Destroy iff we didn't get queued again and we're still
+ * owned by the cgroup. If ->owner was cleared by
+ * cgroup1_pidlist_destroy_all(), it will free us.
+ */
+ if (l->owner == owner && !delayed_work_pending(dwork)) {
+ list_del(&l->links);
+ kvfree(l->list);
+ put_pid_ns(l->key.ns);
+ tofree = l;
+ }

- mutex_unlock(&l->owner->pidlist_mutex);
+ mutex_unlock(&l->owner->pidlist_mutex);
+ }
kfree(tofree);
}

--
2.43.0